No longer here
by esama
Summary: Marik visits Domino to see what he had missed since the pharaoh's passing. Oneshot


**No longer here  
**

Marik let out a heavy breath while sitting down to the bed. Running his hand through his sleek platinum blonde hair, he looked around himself in the hotel room and wondered why he was here again, in Domino of all paces. Because Ishizu had decided that he had moped around home more than enough, because Rishid had agreed with her?

Falling flat to his back on the bed, the time keeper chuckled a little. Ever since the whole mess with the Items had ended his life had fallen into ancient track and pattern. At first he had liked it - especially right after the chaos that had been the time of the Millennium Items little bit of normalcy had been welcome… but the he had gotten bored, apparently. And more bored… and little more bored until Ishizu had decided to kick him out of their home. "Come back when you no longer want to make papyrus cranes!"

Marik chuckled to himself before slowly turning silent. Then he stood up with a huff and looked around in the hotel room. He had only just came to the hotel room, but he was already bored. Walking to the small balcony, he slipped outside to lean against the baluster and just stare at the city below.

What to do? He wanted to see his former opponents, but it wasn't like he knew where any of them lived - and if he would just appear out of nowhere they would probably be suspicious of him… well, it wasn't like there was actually anything wrong with that. Suspicions caused excitement after all, and wasn't that why he was there? Chuckling Marik smiled to the wind that was tugging his hair. But where to start?

Gazing down for a moment, Marik's eyes were drawn to the spectre of green he saw from the corner of his eyes - park of some sort. Making his decision he turned around and left the balcony, soon not only leaving his room but the entire building as well. As his steps took him towards the park he had seen, he hoped he would run into someone familiar. Like Yugi and the Pharaoh, Kaiba, Jonouchi… former opponents, former enemies.

"Hmm… this isn't such a bad place," Marik mused to himself while finding seat in one of the many benches of the park. Definitely different from Egypt, that was for sure. In Egypt seeing this much green things in same place was pretty rare even though there were plantings and such. Leaning back and just taking in the strange threes, the former bearer of the Millennium Rod chuckled. Even the air was different. In Egypt there was no humidity in the air.

Looking at the strange trees planted all around the park, Marik tilted his head to the side and for a moment wondered what kind of trees they were. In his home there was mostly only palm trees - sure there was other trees here and there as well, but they were mostly palm trees. Here, on the other hand… were those strange pink thingies.

"Cherry trees," voice spoke behind him suddenly, making him nearly jump into air with surprise. The same voice giggled a bit. "They're called cherry trees. Sakura."

"What the -" Marik muttered and turned to look behind him over his shoulder. His eyes widened at the sight of the pharaoh's light. Mutô Yugi giggled a bit at his shocked expression while holding his hands behind his head. The short teen definitely hadn't changed at all - he was still short, still had the strangest hair ever, still dressed into his school uniform, he even had the leather shirt and choker just like before.

"Yugi," Marik found himself smirking. "Long time no see."

"Longer than you think," Yugi laughed. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Egypt taking care of the tombs or something?"

"Sister kicked me out when I started to make papyrus origami, she guessed I was bored," Marik shook his head. "Papyrus origami?" Yugi looked interested. "Does that work the same way as normal origami?"

"I don't know, I have never actually made normal cranes," the Egyptian laughed and motioned the shorter teen to come closer. "Sit down; tell me what has been going on around here."

"I've been sitting a lot lately so I'll stand for a while, thanks," Yugi laughed and stepped forward to lean his elbows to the backrest of the bench. "Hmm… what has happened here again? Well, Kaiba is now making his theme parks which apparently are really popular - Kaiba Lands. I haven't visited one yet, but those who have say that they are amazing…" The short duellist thought about it. "Well Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda and Ryô are still in school of course, about to finish the high school actually. Ryô is going to study history in college, takes after his father. Jonouchi is probably going to continue pursuing duelling career or something of the sort. Honda is going to continue into business college of sorts and Anzu is planning to move out Japan to follow her dream of dancing…"

"What about you?" Marik asked curiously.

"I'll be sticking around here for a while," Yugi shrugged. "Just sort things out before I start anything else - you know, settle my mind before I move on or something." He chuckled and looked at the Egyptian curiously. "What about you? Any great plans for the future?"

"I'll apparently be the Time Keeper until I'll die," Marik shrugged. "It's not necessarily a bad, not with Ishizu and Rashid around to help me."

"Hmm…" Yugi looked at him thoughtfully. "You're still the Time Keeper even though the Items have been sealed away and the Pharaoh has returned to the past?"

"Your family has been keeping the tomb for so long that we probably don't know how to stop," Marik shook his head laughing. "Besides we don't want people digging the gate up, do we?"

"No… I suppose not," Yugi mused.

Marik looked at the petite teen curiously. "You miss him, don't you? The pharaoh."

"Of course," Yugi nodded solemnly. "He was the half of my soul, the me I could never be. Ever since he has left I've been feeling rather empty inside, flawed again," he was quiet for a moment before shaking his head and smiling. "But it's not like I'll never see him again, right?"

"Hm… I suppose not," Marik smiled to the petite teen. "Do you always look for the bright side in everything?"

"Always," Yugi giggled. "It helps me manage."

Marik looked at him with confusion. "Manage?" he asked.

"Yeah," the short duellist shook his head and looked at the cherry trees. "Before I completed the puzzle I was kind of bullied in school - picked on by the bigger kids. Even Jonouchi and Honda picked on me before the pharaoh came. And I guess I was kind of charity project to Anzu, who was one of the most popular girls of our school. By looking at the bright side I managed to get through it without actually losing my mind…" He shrugged. "Then the pharaoh came and I no longer had to deal with any of it."

"You were picked on? I didn't know about that," Marik murmured.

"They don't like to think about it," Yugi shrugged. "Brings up bad memories for all of us. I've gotten over it all, though - the pharaoh helped me with it immensely - but the others haven't forgotten I guess."

Marik was quiet for a while, before standing up. "I want to see the others too, Jonouchi and the rest. Do you know where they are?"

"On the other side of the park," Yugi motioned towards one of the walkways leading through the park. "Just follow that and you can't miss them."

"If they're there, why are you here?" Marik asked with confusion.

Yugi shrugged. "Let's just say that we hang around different circles now." He smiled and turned around, waving his hand in farewell. "It was nice talking with you, Marik. I'll see you around sometime," he said before jogging away, soon out of sight as he jogged behind the cherry trees.

Marik frowned with confusion before turning to look at the walkway Yugi had pointed. Yugi and the others didn't hang around anymore? Did it have something to do with the pharaoh's passing? Deciding to find out, Marik started to follow the walkway across the park. It didn't take long before he came into stone wall of sorts the separated the park and a… cemetery.

"What the heck…?" Marik mumbled and walked to the cemetery. Looking around to see where the other duellists might be, he soon saw the unmistakable blonde head of Jonouchi Katsuya. Then he saw Mazaki Anzu, Honda Hiroto and Bakura Ryô as well. Mazaki was lowering a single flower to one of the graves, the grave… of Mutô Yugi.

---

Another semi-mindless drabble, I seem to be writing lot of these lately...


End file.
